15 years Vision Document of Niti Aayog.

Prime Minister held a review meeting of the planning since independence that India has seen. He also took a review meeting of the last 18 months of performance of Niti Ayog, the institution which took over fromplanning commission.

The whole purpose of the review was to identity the good points and the weak points of a particular process. The idea was to learn lessons from those weaknesses and make sure that the 15 year vision documentshould not repeat those weak points.

Prime Minister highlighted that planning should not be for 15 or 20 years, but for a century. We have analysed the past and should now lay the foundation for a strong 21st This is an opportunity of lifetime. The government is ready to experiment and take bold decisions and ready to support growth rates.

It is not the growth rate which is essential; it is the economic development which is essential. Whatever the government does should percolate down the pyramid. Therefore the planning should be in this direction.

Role of Science and Technology in the economic growth.

The way Science and Technology is growing today will impact each and every segment of our economic development. These include E-governance, transparency, connectivity, direct subsidy transfer, providing education at remote places, providing healthcare using E-technology, and proving data for doing better analysis.

Today data should be available in real time, so that the decision making process is concurrent. Technology should be used in each and every sphere. Because the technology is growing, the skill level of the people using the technology should be tuned accordingly.

The skilled man power will be the advantage of India today in terms of 600 million young people. They will be able to provide support not only to India but to the whole world.

There should be sourcing of talented people from outside if they are not available in India. The 15 years vision document acts like a foundation for the next century. We should not hesitate to take ideas from anywhere on the globe. Best ideas should be taken so that we have a robust plan today.

Government is ready to experiment on new ideas. Unless we experiment we cannot achieve a leapfrog growth. Traditional approach gives incremental growth. What is required today is an accelerated leapfrog growth. This will come only if we experiment with the planning process, execution process, and synergy among all towards a common cause.

The impact of Science and Technology on the growth and economy of our country is not commensurate. While in Science and Technology we have moved up the ladder, but its impact on economic growth is yet to be seen in a significant manner.

Whatever is needed to maintain law and order should be provided through technology.

Importance of Planning

India can grow when both the pillars that is the centre and the state works together. Working together does not mean they work in silos. They should work together right from the conception of the programme, planning, execution, and evaluating of the programme.

So while designing the mission for next 15 years, it is essential that there should be a very strong dialogue with the states, their views should be considered and the planning process should be tuned to that particular state.

The planning process should customize for specific reasons. The planning for hinterland states is not valid for north eastern states. Tune the planning process which is geographically, ecologically and socially compatible with that region.

The planning should create the job opportunities. It should create opportunities for an individual to become an Entrepreneur. Today the need is for individual jobs and not for institutional jobs. Individual should be a job provider and an Entrepreneur who becomes employed in that.

The programmes like Atal Innovation Mission and Self Employment and Talent Utilization should be accelerated so that large number of enterprises comes up. Stand-up India and Start-up India will not only provide Entrepreneurship, but create more job providers than job seekers.

Need of the Hour

The vision is for the nation in which the states are an integral part. If one has to create wealth, it can be done by losing the natural resources. If we are exporting our natural resources, then we are not creating any wealth but only distributing wealth. So there is a need for value addition.

The satellite technology helps to asses our natural resources, to mine them and to use them. We need to identify our natural resources, identify our strengths and design programmes accordingly.

India has abundant uranium reserves, but still we are looking for imports mainly because we are not in a position to identify the real locations in the big way.

India has an advantage of being a littoral state with long coast line. All the nations having long coast lines have grown economically in the past because of the trade opportunities and movement of logistics etc.

India has 7000 kms of long coast line. There is a need to work towards Blue Economy. Blue Economy means extracting wealth from the sea, using the sea routes for variety of applications like trade so that our economy grows better.

Conclusion

So far our focus was on creation of knowledge. We did not concentrate on converting knowledge into innovation, commercialisation and production. The trajectory of Science and Technology in our country has to be now changed where its relevance will be more societal, and it should be more for creating wealth along with creation of knowledge.

Country is looking towards transformational approach and not incremental approach. Therefore the vision has to be transformational. The clear mandate of the Niti Ayog and the plan for the future will take India to a higher level of growth and status in the global scenario.

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